


Time's Up: An Iris Route

by GregShep



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, aiba is confused, brain shenanigans, nobody knows what's going on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:08:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GregShep/pseuds/GregShep
Summary: Iris is on the brink. Then she isn't.MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES. The entire game. Play it if you haven't, finish it if you haven't. It's worth your while, I promise.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	Time's Up: An Iris Route

**Author's Note:**

> CAUTION: This fic contains major spoilers for the entirety of AI: The Somnium Files despite only being set around one possible ending. If you haven’t played the game, go play it, it’s great. There's a demo for it too, completely free to try on the Switch and Steam. If you haven’t completed the game, I'd highly recommend finishing it before you read this. 
> 
> For context, this begins during the endgame of Iris Route.
> 
> This idea just kind of arrived in my head unheeded and I felt I needed to actually do something with it since it's a small fandom. I may continue this 'new' route in the future - let me know if you like it!

Iris Sagan could hear a voice. 

It was a woman’s voice. On most days, it would be her mother calling to wake her up. Mom had been out a lot more than usual recently, at odd hours of the night. It didn’t sound like Hitomi though.

“Date? I have terminated the Psync,” said the voice with a somber tone. “You went over six minutes. I understand you were desperate to save her, but there’s nothing we could do. Date, she’s...”

What the voice was saying made no sense. Her memories were fragmented, she needed a moment to put herself back together.

Iris searched her scattered thoughts. Date... She and Kaname Date had been investigating Renju’s disappearance, then she had been… kidnapped by Date’s coworker? He had a name that made her think about her favorite monster collecting game but she hadn’t spent enough time with him to know it for sure. 

She was dropped into the care of several mercenaries. Iris thought they had been speaking english, but couldn’t understand what they were saying. She’d been taken to the warehouse, the same one where Date had seen her dead body. This scared Iris. Had she misread the signs? What if Date hadn’t seen a parallel world, what if he had seen the future?

Thankfully, though, there was a commotion, and her friends (and the Yakuza guy whose hand she had shaken) had busted in and rescued her. The kidnapping lasted less than a day, all-told. She was grateful to Moma for the tracking device he had provided.

She was just glad it was over. Naix was surely defeated by now. Date had found the core of Naixatloz’ power, the second Psync machine. Surely destroying it would...

Naix?

Naixatloz suddenly seemed like such a silly idea. How could she have ever believed in something so… outlandish? A self-propagating race of alien artificial intelligence? A world-wide conspiracy working with the Wadjet System?

“I am glad to hear you have come to your senses,” said the voice. “Naixatloz was complete nonsense. I only wish it could have been under better circumstances. Now, wake up.”

There was something odd about the voice. It wasn’t exactly coming from any discernible location. It was almost as if it was already inside of her head.

Iris Sagan opened her eyes.

She was lying down in a reclined chair. Her body felt odd. Bigger. Standing, still a little woozy, she remembered further. Putting memories in order was just like choreographing a dance routine. One thing after the other. Go in order. 

That’s right, she had brought Date to the abandoned factory, the one that Renju had brought her to. Then she’d collapsed…

“Date?” asked the voice. “I know it was a little long, but your brainwaves have stabilized. You need to move. Iris is not dead yet. You may still be able to be with her in her final moments.”

The words hit Iris like a brick. Iris wasn’t dead? But… She still had time, didn’t she? The tumor was bad, sure, but surely she still had time.

“I’m perfectly fine. Just a little f-” She stopped short. Her voice sounded wrong. “A… a fainting… spell.”

“Date?” asked the voice, concerned.

Iris turned around and moved toward the chair on the other end of the machine.

There, lying on the opposite side, was her body. It was barely moving, but she could see a smile on her own face. One of her eyes had been torn out, and was bleeding.

“Aiba…” whispered the distant body. “I remembered… right at the last second. I remembered what the Psync machine could do.”

“What?” demanded the voice. “What is she talking about? Why would _Iris_ know what the Psync could do? What can it do?”

Iris’ body made no signs that it could hear the voice. “Aiba…” It whispered. “The fruit of immortality. I got it.”

“Date, move! Get to her!” The voice was insistent now, just on the edge of pleading. “Date, Iris has a porno mag, you have to go to her!”

“I pulled off a miracle. The fruit…” said the body.

Iris could barely register what any voice was saying. Instead, she collapsed and pushed herself backward across the dirty floor of the abandoned factory, away from her body. The voice continued to shout about porn, which did nothing to motivate Iris.

She stared at her hands. Not her hands, which were currently across the room, but Date’s hands. Tears flowed down her new cheeks. Iris had cried before, she was used to the path that tears would take down her face. This face was different. The tears took a different route.

Iris’ body didn’t speak or move again. The voice eventually gave up on shouting about porn. Minutes passed.

“You are not Date,” said the voice matter-of-factly, as though it were simply explaining the situation. “Date would have moved for the magazine. Date would have wanted to be by her side. You are not him.”

Iris nodded.


End file.
